Puff. To be sure you are. Now then for the commander-in-chief, the Earl of Leicester, who, you know,
was no favourite but of the queens.We left offin amazement lost!
Sir Christ. | Am in amazement
lost. |
| But, see where noble Leicester comes! supreme |
| In honours and command. |
Sir Walt. | And yet,
methinks, |
| At such a time, so perilous, so feard, |
| That staff might well become an abler grasp. |
Sir Christ. | And so, by Heaven! think I; but soft, hes here! |
Puff. Ay, they envy him!
Sneer. But who are these with him?
Puff. Oh! very valiant knights: one is the governor of the fort, the other the master of the horse. And
now, I think, you shall hear some better language: I was obliged to be plain and intelligible in the first
scene, because there was so much matter of fact in it; but now, ifaith, you have trope, figure, and metaphor,
as plenty as noun substantives.
Enter Earl of Leicester, Governor, Master of the Horse, Knights, &c.
Leic. | Hows this, my friends!
ist thus your new-fledged zeal |
| And plumèd valour moulds in roosted sloth? |
| Why dimly glimmers that
heroic flame, |
| Whose reddening blaze, by patriot spirit fed, |
| Should be the beacon of a kindling realm? |
| Can the quick current of a patriot heart |
| Thus stagnate in a cold and weedy converse, |
| Or freeze in tideless
inactivity? |
| No! rather let the fountain of your valour |
| Spring through each stream of enterprise, |
| Each
petty channel of conducive daring, |
| Till the full torrent of your foaming wrath |
| Oerwhelm the flats of sunk
hostility! |
Puff. There it isfollowed up!
Sir Walt. | No more!the freshening breath of thy rebuke |
| Hath filld the
swelling canvas of our souls! |
| And thus, though fate should cut the cable of |
[All take hands.
| Our topmost hopes, in friendships closing line |
| Well grapple with despair, and if we fall, |
| Well fall in glorys wake! |
Leic. | There spoke old Englands genius! |
| Then, are we all resolved? |
All. | We
areall resolved. |
Leic. | To conqueror be free? |
All. | To conquer, or be free. |
Leic. | All? |
All. | All. |
Dang.
Nem. con. | egad! |
Puff. O yes!where they do agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful!
Leic. | Then lets embraceand
now |
[Kneels.
Sneer. What the plague, is he going to pray?
Puff. Yes; hush!in great emergencies, there is nothing like a prayer.
Dang. But why should he pray to Mars?
Puff. Hush!
Leic. | If in thy homage bred, |
| Each point of discipline Ive still observed; |
| Nor but by due
promotion, and the right |
| Of service, to the rank of major-general |
| Have risen; assist thy votary now! |
Gov. | Yet do not risehear me! |
[Kneels.
[Kneels.
[Kneels.
[Kneels.